"Top-flight
departments expect AGU Fellows on their faculty," Holbrook says. "This is the
start of something. I'm sure I won't be the last one on my faculty to receive
this award."

Holbrook, who served as secretary of the seismology section
of AGU a decade ago, says he considers this award as recognition from his
peers and describes it as "a career achievement award for a body of work." He
says he was nominated by a professor at Oregon State University and one in
Paris, France.

Over the course of his career, Holbrook has studied topics
as varied as continental breakup, volcanism and continental growth, physical
oceanography and methane hydrates (methanes locked in ice that can serve as a
potential energy source) -- on research cruises in such far-flung places as
Greenland, Iceland, Norway, Newfoundland, Alaska, Costa Rica and New Zealand.
He also first developed seismic oceanography, considered a new type of research
in the world of seismology.

Holbrook describes what he does as akin to "taking a CT scan
of the Earth."

The AGU was established in 1919 by the National Research
Council and, for more than 50 years, operated as an unincorporated affiliate of
the National Academy of Sciences. AGU is now a nonprofit organization dedicated
to the furtherance of the geophysical sciences through the individual efforts
of its more than 50,000 members, and in cooperation with other national and
international scientific organizations.

"AGU congratulates its
2012 class of Fellows. The Fellows program recognizes AGU members who have made
exceptional contributions to their fields as evaluated by their peers and
vetted by section and focus group committees," reads a statement on AGU's
website about this year's Fellows. "To qualify for consideration, nominees must
be responsible for a major breakthrough, discovery, or paradigm shift in one of
the Earth and space sciences."

"It's a great source
of pride for UW to have faculty members of Professor Holbrook's caliber," says Myron Allen, UW's
provost and vice president for academic affairs. "To his Wyoming colleagues -- and
to the many students he has taught -- this honor seems overdue. But, in fact,
he's one of the youngest of this year's honorees ... To be nominated and selected
as an AGU Fellow recognizes the wide influence of one's work on this enormous
community of scientists."

"I have received a lot of support from UW and from many
post-docs and students over the past 15 years," Holbrook says. "That support
has contributed directly to this award."

A black-tie ceremony will honor the new Fellows at the AGU
meeting, scheduled during December, in San Francisco. Holbrook, who will
receive a certificate and plaque, says he plans to attend.

Photo:Steven Holbrook, a UW professor of geophysics,
stands aboard the research vessel Marcus G. Langseth, which is owned by the
National Science Foundation. Holbrook served as chief scientist during a 2008
research expedition in the Pacific Ocean, off Costa Rica. The research focused
on studying the composition of the crust under the Costa Rican subduction zone,
where the Cocos tectonic plate is diving under the Caribbean plate.